Hash Kilt – Martijn.be

The New Town

Published on 25 June 2025

Wednesday was another travel day—although this time just the one train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh—but also another hashing day, with The New Town hash this evening.

The day started a bit earlier than expected: I had to go back to the NorthLink Ferries terminal to pick up some haberdashery (hashing gear) that didn’t make it to the event in time. Once back in my hotel with the loot, I enjoyed breakfast there, and then finished packing.

Well before my train was due to depart, I went to Aberdeen station to relax a bit in the First Class Lounge.

It would take the ScotRail train about 2h20 to take me from Aberdeen to Edinburgh Waverley, but I was well provided for, since on board too there was an unlimited supply of water and shortbread. And I did get some great sea views for a large part of the voyage!

After arrival, I went straight to my hotel—Hub by Premier Inn in Rose Street—and after a cup of tea in the lobby, I could already check myself in.

For my coffee I didn’t have to go too far, since it was just around the corner. I actually had even visited Wellington Coffee before!

Completely new to me, however, was BrewDog Edinburgh Waverley, a BrewDog franchise bar in the main train station. I took me a while to find it, but while The Shaw OG hot dog was really nice, the beer choice on the other hand was rather disappointing. It really is a bar where you’d only go to kill some time while waiting for your train, and definitely not a beer geek destination…

Time to change again, and hop on a bus to get to the start of this week’s The New Town H3 run. It was a nice turnout, and an even better trail! Somehow the TNT runs I join are always quite hilly, though…

Back in the centre—and freshened up and back in my MacLaren kilt—I had a couple of beers at the Edinburgh Fierce Bar.

After a quick late night dinner at Jollibee, my last stop of the evening was at Vessel, a restaurant and bar run by the Pilot brewery. Since it was almost closing time, I was their last and only customer, which gave the bar staff plenty of time to provide me with loads of recommendations of places to go in Edinburgh!

Beer Lovers’ Marathon 2025

Published on 18 May 2025

I did it again! The Beer Lovers’ Marathon that is… Sans wig this time, but with a homemade blue balmoral bonnet with a red toorie, embodying Tintin in his The Black Island album.

The theme of the Beer Lovers’ Marathon this year was “Belgian Comics”, so that’s why I gave my best interpretation of Tintin in his album “The Black Island”, or as it’s called in Gaelic “An T-Eilan Dubh”: kilted—obviously—wearing a blue balmoral bonnet with a red toorie, and a blue, long-sleeved running shirt, with the album cover printed on the back.

My first attempt at this marathon was in 2022, and it definitely went better this time: more than half an hour faster! I still had to walk the last bit, but I managed to run most of it this time. I actually already started feeling my right knee from about kilometer 20, and my left knee started acting up soon after that.

After climbing the 374-step Montagne de Bueren staircase, and the nasty climb following that—around the 11th beer stop at 34,4 km, Saint Nitouche—my my knees told me that, if I still wanted to use them after that day, I’d better stop running…

I tried a little jog every once in a while, but the signal my knees gave me was clear: don’t overdo it… Even after slowing down, the pacemaker with the “10 minutes until the bar closes” sign never caught up with me, and all seventeen beer stops on the course were still serving beer by the time I reached them.

In despite of the pain, I still ran the final 100 meters from the last beer stop to the finish. You can’t finish a marathon walking, can you? In the end, I finished 1152th, of 2274 finishers in total, so not too shabby at all!

(See this run on Strava)

Carnival in Tilburg

Carnival in Tilburg

Published on 1 March 2025

Somehow I keep ending up in North Brabant during carnival. However, while last time it was by accident, this time it was intentional: I went to Tilburg—for the occasion renamed Kruikenstad—for a special carnival run!

Tilburg station was very crowded when I arrived, and the square in front of it was even worse! The reason became clear when I overheard people discussing today’s schedule while I was having my coffee at Buut Vrij: right around the time I arrived in Tilburg, Prince Carnival—every town or village over there has one appointed for the carnival season—was expected there. I was basically crashing his welcome party!

Since I still had some time before my run, I seized the opportunity to discover the local craft beer scene. I didn’t expect many places to be open, or serving anything special during carnival, and my first intended stop—Café Kandinsky—was indeed closed… Luckily in the LOC Brewery it was business as usual, so I could try some of their beers there. I wanted to take a couple of cans for later—I love the Dutch hashers and their runs, but their choice of beers less so—but apparently there is a very strict separation between the hospitality industry and retail in the Netherlands! So after being unable to sell me any beer to go, bartender Teun was so kind to call ahead to Koen of De Bierbrigadier—the craft beer shop in town—to ask him to already put some LOC beers in the fridge for me, so they would be ready and cold for consumption later.

Amsterdam H3 Trail nº1442 – Carnaval in Tilburg

With cold beers in my bag, I then headed to the start location for the run. As is not uncommon for trails by the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers—the organisers of this run—the start was from the hare’s home. After waiting for everyone to actually find the place, and changing into a theme appropriate outfit, we were off! I was one of only two runners—the others were walkers—but we did get some nice views on trail the walkers didn’t! There were a couple of drink stops on trail, but one was quite unique: it was on a hand-operated chain ferry, in the middle of the canal!

After the run, we gathered back at Pink Panter’s apartment for Circle and dinner.

Since the Belgian rail unions were still partly on strike, I didn’t want to leave it until the last train to get home. So after dinner, I made my way through the partying city to the station—which was way less crowded than when I arrived there earlier that day—to catch an early train to Breda. Over there, it was a bit more chaotic—bigger carnival crowds, multiple last minute platform changes—but I made it on my train to Brussels eventually.

Day 5 – Last Day, Last Hash…

Day 5 – Last Day, Last Hash…

Published on 21 September 2024

Reached this post by just scrolling through my blog? 
If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!

On the last day of my trip I had one more hash to go, with London H3 this time, and at noon already. Once again, in the west of London, meaning another day spending quite a bit of time on trains again…

No hash with at least some food in my stomach, so my first stop of the day was at BrewDog Waterloo , for a Croissant Brunch Burger and some pancakes. Being at an Outpost, I had to try some of their beers brewed on site… Good morning!

After that, and had no time to lose, and took the South Western Railway to Barnes Bridge, from where the P trail lead me to The Coach and Horses pub, where the London H3 trail would start. It was a great hash to do as the last one during my London visit, but even though I only walked this one—I didn’t want to too sweaty on the Eurostar—if was definitely one of the longer ones!

After trail, it was time to get closer to my final departure station, and to my favourite London BrewDog bar: BrewDog Camden. I originally had other dinner plans, but since I was running a bit late, I just had some Korean loaded fries in the bar.

Getting to the Eurostar station, through security, and onto the train: it all went pretty smoothly, so that marks the end of this trip.…

Day 3 – West, East, and West London Again!

Day 3 – West, East, and West London Again!

Published on 19 September 2024

While I covered quite a distance yesterday with my excursion to Enfield, today’s milage wouldn’t be much less, due to my destinations being in the western and eastern extremities of London.

I had my heart set on a Syrian breakfast at Maroush Bakehouse this morning, but for some reason it was closed. The queues at my backup spot were horrendous, and even Gregg’s was way too busy! In the end, a Mighty McMuffin had to do…

After that, I was off to the London Transport Museum Depot, which by sheer coincidence had their open days this week. I did the Pallet Racking Curator Tour, and lots of just looking around. They were even selling pieces of underground moquette seat covers!

Since I was that far west already, I went to Artisan Coffee for my cortado. On my way there I passed BrewDog Ealing, and thought it would be rude not to go there for a beer afterwards. The next beer stop, at BeerKat, actually was planned, although I didn’t really plan on having a DIPA and a TIPA already that early in the day…

I had plenty of time to recover on the Elizabeth line to Canary Wharf though, where I visited the London Museum Docklands. Pretty neat for a free museum!

While in the area, I had to revisit the refurbished BrewDog Canary Wharf, although I couldn’t remember what it looked like before… To prepare me for more drinking—and some running—I had this month’s special, the Chor-ree-tho burger.

By then it was already time to get ready for my run with the West London Hash. The start was in Richmond: true to their name, quite far west. Definitely the darkest run of the week, I hardly ever switched off my head torch!